New Group Formed From Split in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement

13 December 2005

Members of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, who resigned in protest last April over what they said were restrictions on internal democracy, undue influence of external organizations, and a general turn towards reformism, have declared the formation of a new political organisation. The group, which includes the former International Secretary of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and veterans of the movement for over two decades, has reorganized as the International Republican Socialist Network and vowed to widen its international focus, while returning to the revolutionary politics of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement’s earlier period.The new organization’s roots lie to some extent in the Irish National Liberation Army cease-fire declared in August of 1998. Former IRSP International Secretary Peter Urban, along with former IRSP Ard Comhairle member Kevin McQuillen, had been one of the most vocal opponents of recommending a cease-fire to the INLA during the 1997 IRSP Ard Fheis and continued to oppose moves to move forward with the cease-fire recommendation in the summer of 1998, despite the defeat of the motion at the Ard Fheis the previous year. According to Urban:

“The INLA cease-fire introduced significant challenges in maintaining a revolutionary program for the IRSP, which we advocated meeting with a heightened focus on internal political education. While the INLA remained active, maintaining a revolutionary program was relatively easy. The IRSP couldn't be transformed into a 'respectable' entity, in capitalist terms, and that helped to ensure the ability to steer a course away from reformism.”What took place, Urban says, was the exact opposite. According to him the IRSP’s Political Secretary and others thwarted all efforts to introduce a program of internal political education, failed to act on proposals for new revolutionary initiatives, such as building a revolutionary shop stewards organisation, and advocated greater involvement in what Urban calls “electoral nonsense”. In addition, he accuses the IRSP's Political Secretary of working covertly to bring the IRSP increasingly under the influence of the British Trotskyist group headed by Ted Grant, without the party’s membership being made aware of itRegarding statements from the IRSP that “the war is over” in Ireland, Urban says,“The revolutionary analysis to which the IRSP and INLA traditionally subscribed has always been that the use of armed struggle is not a matter of principle, but a purely tactical consideration. As Marxists we accept the perspective that the history of human civilization is the history of class struggle and the INLA had always declared that it would maintain its arms until a 32-county Irish socialist republic was established. The International Republican Socialist Network still believe that position to be correct“The IRSP has always said there is no parliamentary road to socialism. At some point it will be necessary to overturn the capitalist governments of the six and 26-county Irish statelets and create a workers’ republic composed of the entire island of Ireland. We cannot say the ‘war is over for all time’; instead we should say, ‘for now, the war of national liberation is over, long live the class war’.”

The new organization has been established with its headquarters in the United States, in San Francisco, but is organising on an international basis, with special focus on Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, the Basque lands, and Puerto Rico. All of these nations, according to the International Republican Socialist Network, are suited to the republican socialist program which shaped the Irish Republican Socialist Movement